Food Rules, Rule Number Eleven

March 11, 2010

photo by Wynand Delport

What doesn’t get advertised today? And yet Pollan’s advice on this one is sound. Anytime someone HAS to tell you to go eat something, it’s likely that product would not have risen to your attention via word of mouth after its excellent taste had become legendary.

He does make the exception those foods that are advertised categorically (i.e. the Beef Producers of America, or Dairy Farmers for Milk, or whatever those things are called). But for an individual product to have an advertising budget means that it also has some measure of flash in the packaging, understated as it might be. And that also means that some level of R & D probably went into it as well. And some level of R & D would only be necessary if there was some sort of augmenting or altering going on.

While the ads themselves may be clever and not inherently harmful, like many of the food rules, they serve as markers that something is not right. Or at least that you ought to really consider what you’re eating. Of course, some are just worth it for entertainment value:

More than anything, this rule helps prevent you from getting into Fat Cat foods, i.e. those produced by the companies that can afford TV ads, which is a small percentage of the whole number of food producers in the United States. Be wary.